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We all know that in today's threat-conscious world, communication is more than a convenience.

To protect their organizations and the public in the event of a natural disaster, terrorist strike, or other significant threat, businesses and governments have been forced to reassess their ability to monitor events, notify key constituencies, and provide accurate and relevant information. But creating a reliable warning and communication system has been a challenge.

As we learned during both the 9-11 attacks and the Eastern Seaboard blackouts, when both cell phones and LAN lines were largely unavailable, traditional wired and wireless systems are highly vulnerable to both natural and man-made calamities. These events underscored for all of us the need for a more reliable emergency event infrastructure.

Anywhere, Anytime Emergency Notification

Now a new convergence of technologies - most notably the wide proliferation of the Internet, mobile communications, and speech recognition software - is driving the deployment of proactive "anywhere, anytime" emergency notification systems. This new approach to emergency notification combines traditional Web and wireless messaging with the power of interactive voice alerts. One key aspect of this new approach is the use of XML and VoiceXML to deliver critical emergency notifications. When layered on top of traditional applications, an XML- or VoiceXML-based approach can spread the responsibility for emergency notifications across both wireline and wireless services in a true multimodal fashion.

The XML Approach

The XML-driven approach combines sophisticated monitoring and detection with advanced push technology to provide reliable and cost-efficient emergency event notification for the government sector.

To appreciate the impact these technologies may have on the future of emergency notification, let's take a closer look at exactly how XML messaging works.

XML messaging
XML-oriented systems can now be deployed to meet a variety of emergency notification requirements. Some of the latest systems allow reliable and detailed alerts to be forwarded to virtually any constituent, from government and public safety officials to senior executives, security and facility managers, health and emergency service providers, disaster recovery teams, and others.

These types of alerting technologies allow end users to query any type of content or source and to forward notifications in customized formats to virtually any wireless, Internet-enabled, or custom device, including voice telephones, fax, pager, e-mail, PDA, or SMS-text messages.

Using an open approach to monitoring, detection, and notification (see Figure 1), the XML-based approach gives organizations great flexibility in the selection and deployment of notification solutions while preserving the value of existing infrastructure investments.

Monitoring is a crucial aspect of any notification infrastructure, and these systems can initiate the process by continually checking the status of one or more content resources, which can be an XML or a VoiceXML file. To ensure reliability even during a major event, the system can check content resources on the Internet via HTTP or HTTPS, as well as at selected backup locations.

An alert engine then places a call request to a media server's messaging manager, from which an outbound application writes a Java servlet request to an internal database for confirmation and verification. A voice alert gateway receives the call request from an HTTP server and the XML or VoiceXML document from the alerts engine, and performs outbound dialing to the person or organization to be notified. The notification is then played and verified, or attempted again if the call reaches a voicemail system or busy signal. An automated application then posts the results of the call to confirm the results of the notification.

This XML-based system supports true multichannel message delivery, message receipt acknowledgement reporting, and notification retry across channels until the message is successfully delivered. Communications are configurable by role, message, and content, and sophisticated Web- and voice-based notification services can be securely managed by administrators who do may not have a great deal of technical expertise.

Deploying XML solutions
For systems administrators, the XML and VoiceXML solutions offer great promise for a more practical and reliable means to create emergency notification offerings for various public and private applications. These applications can be layered as a loosely coupled service and provisioned as an ASP offering and delivered via narrowcast alerts on either a national or regional basis.

Systems administrators can leverage the flexibility of this open, standards-based approach to formulate and deploy emergency notification solutions that incorporate a number of advanced features and functions.

A system can be configured, for example, to grant or deny permission to send messages or administer alert lists based on preset authorizations. Multimodal messages can be quickly and easily targeted to user-defined groups or individuals, with selected recipients receiving appropriate notifications under preselected conditions.

The Web-based nature of this approach also allows administrators to manage all emergency notifications at any time and from any Internet-enabled connection. Personalized Web portals allow users to create notification lists and groups, manage permissions and messages, and modify portal content online and in real time with no IT or Webmaster involvement.

When offered to public agencies or companies, this type of emergency notification would be provided on a subscription basis, with cellphone-style pricing for basic services and additional charges for use above a preset level. This platform-based, XML-driven approach allows emergency management personnel to create scenario-specific communications plans that are executed and documented automatically in the event of an emergency.

Future Applications

One practical use of this technology is in the public education system. A school could use the Web or voice to register the contact information of administrators, teachers, and parents, who would then receive selected information in the event of an emergency situation at any school facility. The same type of emergency notification system can and likely will be deployed to serve hospitals, local governments, universities, corporations, and other organizations.

In a 2002 report on the need for emergency notification, an expert panel of emergency managers recommended the creation of a high-technology national warning system. A system that gathers instant information on threats and emergencies and disseminates warnings to both key decision-makers and the general public could save thousands of lives in a major catastrophic event.

An XML-based solution - by providing fast and reliable notifications through a variety of delivery channels - can give people the warning they need in a serious emergency.